Page 82 of The Predator
“Do you know what it’s like to feel worthless?” Sebastian’s tone is cold, flat, and dark in a way I’ve never heard before. The calm before the storm.
Tanya either had no self preservation instincts or she is dumber than I gave her credit before. She scoffs. Scoffs!
“You’ve never felt worthless in your whole pampered life, Sebastian. Not once since your grandfather stuck that silver spoon between your baby teeth and took you as his heir.” She shifts over onto her knees and braces her hands to stand on her sky high designer heels.
Something is different. Sebastian’s face reads lethal. Tanya’s face reads lustful. It’s almost enough to make me throw up in my mouth. She looks at him like she owns him and that sure as hell sets me off.
“Stop looking at him like that!” I snap.
Tanya doesn’t even spare me a glance but Sebastian tilts his head to look at me, and when he stares into my eyes the coldness is gone. It’s all heat.
Tanya senses she’s losing, and she gets to her feet and straightens her dress. Sebastian stands with her, turns to thefireplace mantle, and snatches up a knife. One particular knife I know intimately.
“Not that one.” I say.
He looks at me again, then approaches and hands me the blade, hilt first, the razor sharp edge between his index and middle finger like a cigarette.
“Take it, Ely. It’s yours.”
I take the knife and settle it in my lap, keeping my eyes on him as he produces a smaller knife from his pocket. “This one is a little smaller, a little duller, but it’ll do the job.”
Tanya pastes on a smile, but it doesn’t reach her dead eyes. “Now, Sebby, come on. We can figure this out without all that.” She waves at the blade in his hand.
Sebastian steps up to her in a lightning fast move, grabbing her by the front of her dress and throwing her back to her knees again. “Answer the question, Tanya. Have you ever felt worthless?”
She gulps, shifting side to side on knees that no doubt hurt from his brutal handling. “I left all that behind me. I don’t feel it anymore.”
Sebastian studies her, and I see the warmth in his eyes drifting away. I wish I could save him from this, but I know it’ll help him in the end. All I can do is be here for him while he faces it, faces her. “What do you mean you left that all behind?”
She straightens her shoulders, trying desperately to hold onto some semblance of dignity. I don’t feel sorry for her, not for a second.
“If I tell you, will you stop with the violence, let me go?”
Sebastian laughs, and it’s a cold thing that slithers through my insides like an ice cube on a hot stone. “No. You’re going to die today, one way or another. I just want to know if the trauma you inflicted was worth it to you? If raping a teenage boy, if breaking him, was worth it?”
Her perfectly botoxed forehead barely wrinkles but I see the question in her eyes. “We’ve been over this, Sebby. It wasn’t rape; it was love.”
I surge to my feet the wordloveechoing in my mind. “How dare you!! Equating rape to love. You don’t know the meaning of love!” I snap.
Again, she ignores me like I don’t exist, and I have half a mind to bring the knife Sebastian just gave me over and show her that I’m here and not going anywhere.
Except, this isn’t about me. I don’t need to protect Sebastian. This is his trauma to accept and face. But it doesn’t make any of this easier. The thought of seeing yet another death blankets my gut with a deep and bone dense dread.
Like a shark scenting blood in the water, Sebastian circles Tanya, and when he’s behind her, he swipes out with the knife at the back of her neck. A thin red line blooms and a few crimson drops of blood seep out.
Tanya throws herself forward, clutching at the small wound like he’s gutted her. She sobs out one long wail and plants herself on her stomach for a moment.
“I said I’d kill you. I didn’t say it would be an easy death.”
I watch the man I love turn into this creature of ice cold stillness, and God, it hurts. “Sebastian…”
Some part of me needs to know he’s still in there. My Sebastian is still behind that cold, indifferent mask.
He focuses on me again, and it takes a minute for his gaze to resettle. I give him a pleading look. “Come here, please.”
With no argument, he sits beside me on the couch and tugs my hips until they touch him. “Can you handle this, Ely? Or do you want to go somewhere else? In the other room with Drew and them?”
I shake my head and tug his hands up to kiss his knuckles. “No, I need to be here for you. I’m stronger than I look.”